


I Won't Be Late For This

by littledaybreaker



Category: Little Women (2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23153062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledaybreaker/pseuds/littledaybreaker
Summary: “When have I ever given you the impression that I’m the sort of person who wants to clip your wings and parade you around and turn you into some boring rich housewife when I can barely stand the thought of that for myself? And when have I ever given you the impression I expected you to be anything but your wild, creative, intelligent, independent, stubborn, utterly beautiful self? I love you because of who you are, not in spite of it.”or, an alternate universe wherein Amy accepts Fred's proposal and Laurie finds Jo's letter.
Relationships: Amy March/Fred Vaughn, Theodore Laurence/Josephine March
Comments: 34
Kudos: 250





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I FEEL LIKE THIS IS GOING TO REQUIRE A LOT OF JUSTIFICATIONS SO HERE WE GO!
> 
> Obviously this makes the supposition that Amy accepts Fred's proposal and decides to marry him, thus opening the door for Jo and Laurie. My entire life I've always hated the scene where she has to go and destroy the letter and found it so intensely painful. Funnily, the 2019 version was simultaneously the easiest to accept the outcome of (eventually) but also the one that opened the door the best for the rewrites I've been doing in my head since I was a child. 
> 
> I intend for this to be ongoing and to explore the complexities and issues of what's changed, eventually. I'm trying not to write a whole novel here but social distancing has got me in the mood. 
> 
> (oh and I gave Beth all her dolls, as in the novel, since in the film we really only see Joanna. Not that it matters, I just thought I'd throw that in there. #justicefortherestofbethsbabies2k20)
> 
> Finally, I have absolute fondness for Amy; I've just always wished I could give Jo and Laurie that chance they deserved.

Despite the awful, heavy silence in the attic room, Jo barely heard Laurie come up, wrapped up as she was in her thoughts. He settled next to her on the sofa, idly picked up one of Beth’s dolls--Nellie, he thought, but he could never seem to keep any of them straight--holding her in his hands, staring at her blank china face instead of at Jo. “I dreamt about her on the way here,” he said, finally. “On the ship.”

Jo looked over at him, sidelong, a small smile crossing her lips at the sight of the doll in Teddy’s hands. “You did?”

He looked at her then for the first time, nodded. “She was in sitting at the piano at my house, and I came down the stairs, but instead of stopping, she looked up at me and smiled and patted the bench, and I sat there for the longest while with her. Finally she told me she had to get home to the dolls and just disappeared. Like she wanted to let me know she was all right, in her Beth way.” 

Jo blinked hard a few times, taking the doll from Teddy, holding her against her chest for a moment. “Beth and the dolls,” she said, shaking her head. “Her pride and joy. And woe be unto anyone who suggested that she was ever too old to mother them.” 

It was then that Laurie got quiet for a moment, as though thinking about something. “In some way, I suppose she was lucky,” he said finally. “She wanted to hold onto childhood because she knew she’d never grow up. So she did.” 

“I wish the rest of us could, too,” Jo said wistfully, thinking of having to return to work, of knowing she would not go back to New York, of the cavernous hole that existed now in her heart. Of the vestiges of her own childhood now scattered to the wind--Beth gone, Meg married, Amy betrothed to Fred, Teddy sure to return to Europe and leave her behind again--and of the letter in the Pickwick Post Office, surely unread, perhaps never to be. “I wish we all could’ve stayed children forever, it’s so dreadful to have to let it all go.”

“Perhaps not all of it,” Teddy said, his face unreadable, getting to his feet, kissing Jo’s cheek, patting the doll’s head. “Josephine, Eleanor, it’s been a pleasure but I must return home now,” he said formally, bowing and leaving the room, Jo calling after him, puzzled but amused: “this one is Abigail!!” 

“Right, right, Abigail. Bye now!” 

Jo watched him disappear over the fence and into his own house, shaking her head. _Still such a strange, beloved boy, her Teddy,_ she thought fondly, setting the doll back in the box with the others and heading down the stairs herself, back to the living room to join everyone else. Perching on the sofa next to Marmee she half-listened to Amy chatter about the wedding and future plans she and Fred had been discussing, about Paris and painting and a thousand other things, her mind a million miles away, thinking of Teddy’s dream, of his cryptic leaving message, of her letter still sitting in the Post Office, until finally there was a break in the conversation and she excused herself, slipping out through the back, her heart racing as she made her way into the forest, one shaking hand firmly on the key all the way. 

_ If the letter’s still in the box, I shall throw it away and never speak of it,  _ she promised herself firmly.  _ I shall throw the key out, too. What’s the point?  _ And she was fully prepared to do so when her eyes fell on the envelope sitting on the floor of the box, face-down, although the idea made her heart sink in some awful, unplaceable way. Steeling herself, she picked the envelope up, and her heart leapt with surprise at the address, in Teddy’s scrawled, lazy hand:  _ Miss Josephine March.  _ Stuffing it in the pocket of her waistcoat, careful not to bend the edges, she practically flew back up to the house, cheeks flushed with excitement. It wasn’t long, however, before she acknowledged that not every letter was good news and sobered herself, walking calmly into the house and vowing not to open the letter until after dinner.

Fred and her parents were still in the living room when she arrived back in, and she gave them all a brief wave before climbing up the stairs to put her letter away by her bed safely for later. 

Across the hall she caught sight of Amy, sitting alone at the end of her bed in the room she’d once shared with Beth, her head down. The letter momentarily forgotten, Jo crossed the hall, sitting down next to Amy, taking her hand. 

“I just really miss her,” Amy said softly, looking up at Jo, her eyes shiny with tears. “I don’t know how she can not be here anymore. I feel like I should be so happy--I am happy!--but it hurts so unspeakably. I should have been here. How am I always so selfish??”

“I know.” Jo stroked her hand comfortingly. “I know you miss her, I miss her too. I would give anything I have to bring her back. But she knew you loved her, Amy. She knew. She never wanted to trouble anyone, she didn’t want to ruin your trip, but she knew how you loved her.” 

Burying her face against Jo’s chest, Amy began to sob, and Jo wrapped her arms around her, rocked her like a baby until the sobs subsided and her breathing evened out. They were silent again for several long moments before Jo asked, “You’re happy to be marrying Fred?” 

Amy sniffled, lifted her head, wiping her eyes and nodding. “At first--” she began, and then something made her stop. “I am.”

“And you love him?” Jo asked, curiously. 

“I do,” she replied, and the sparkle in her eyes told Jo that this was the truth. “I always thought that when I fell in love it would be this beautiful, grand thing, an explosion of stars and fireworks. But it was quieter than that.” A moment’s silence, then, “I think sometimes when you love someone, really, really love them, it’s not so much a production as it is a realization that you can’t imagine what it would be like to live without them.”

Jo’s mind flickered briefly to Teddy, and there was a sudden ache in her heart at the idea of the rest of her life spent without him, a longing, and a warm flood of realization in her chest. “I think,” she said, afraid to betray herself, “you’re going to have a really wonderful life with him, Amy.”

Amy’s face lit up, and there was a hint of mischief sparkling in her eyes, though she did well to keep whatever it was she was thinking about to herself. “I think you will, too,” she said cryptically, and then correcting herself as she rose to her feet, “I know you will.” She excused herself then, leaving Jo alone once more. She waited there at the end of Amy’s bed, wondering what on Earth she could’ve meant, for several long moments before rising to her feet and joining her family downstairs, all thoughts of Teddy and the letter forgotten for the moment.

That night, once everyone else had retired for the evening, Jo finally allowed herself the indulgence of opening the letter, perched (rather superstitiously--somehow feeling she could will it to be the kind of news she was hoping for if she sat in the spot where Teddy had behaved so strangely a few short hours before) on the edge of the sofa in the attic room, wrapped in a blanket, feet tucked up under her. Tearing into it, she began:

_ Jo, _

_ I don’t know what compelled me to check the Pickwick Post Office. It had been so long since I’d even thought of it and when the train came in it was the first thing I thought to do.  _

_ I’ve always held that it was fate that brought us together and that fate is never wrong, so I suppose it was fate that led me back to the Post Office to find your letter. _

_ In Paris I had much time to think and it became a source of deep regret that I left under the circumstances I did. I know it was not easy for either of us and I hope you will forgive me for not writing.  _

_ I was however delighted to find your letter upon returning home, and especially delighted that fate had not let me down. I could go on and on, but I shall get right to the point:  _

_ For you, my dearest Jo, I have infinite chances, infinite patience, an infinite willingness to try again. If you are sure in your feelings (and I have no reason to doubt that you are--you are nothing if not completely sincere and genuine in all things), then it would be my greatest honor to be yours.  _

_ With all my love, _

_ Teddy. _

With her heart in her throat she read it through twice, then a third time just to be sure, practically leaping up from her spot to look over at the big house, unsurprised to see a light on in the window of Teddy’s room. Her heart ached for a moment to think of him there, probably as anxious as she had been thinking the letter was left unread, and she did not hesitate in creeping down the stairs, out the door, and over the fence to the Laurence house. Once there, fumbling in the dark, she found a suitably-sized pebble and was set to lob it against his window when the curtains drew back and Teddy’s amused face appeared in the window, pulling it open, stage-whispering: “were you going to throw that at my window, Miss March?”

Pebble still in her hand, she smirked, somewhat defiantly. “Perhaps.”

“You  _ were! _ ” he beamed, delighted somehow. “Hold on, hold on, I’m coming down.” 

The window snapped closed again and in a moment he appeared in the doorway, hands on his hips, feigning innocent surprise. “Now, what are you doing out here so late?” he asked. “Didn’t anyone tell you that wasn’t proper for a lady?”

Coming to stand in front of him, her face only inches from his, hands on her own hips, “Where would you have gotten the idea that I was a lady?”

He laughed then, a joyful delighted sound that Jo had somehow forgotten how much she adored. “Please accept my apology,” he said playfully, “How foolish of me to make such a mistake!” 

“I got your letter,” she said finally, breathless, reaching to gently, gently touch the hem of his shirt, not daring to touch his skin, not yet. 

“Ah,” he said, feigning surprise, “is that what this is about?”

“Did you mean it?” she asked, allowing herself that vulnerability, ignoring his ridiculousness. “What you said in the letter?”

“Would I have said it if I didn’t?” he asked, voice low, his hands coming to rest on her waist, not yet closing the gap between them. 

“No,” she replied, firm and definitive, and then looked up at him, searching his face. “It’s not going to be easy,” she said tentatively. “ _ I’m  _ not easy. I’m still afraid of what it means to be in love. To give your life to someone. I don’t want to just be...to just be Mrs Laurence, to knock around in a big old house and throw parties and--” she was breathing fast, near tears, words spilling out, “there are so many things I want to do and want to be and I don’t, I can’t, I  _ won’t  _ throw them away, but Teddy, I can’t picture the rest of my life without you.” 

“Jo.” If she were looking at his face, she’d have seen his eyes sparkling with barely-concealed laughter, but she was looking anywhere but. “When have I ever given you the impression that I’m the sort of person who wants to clip your wings and parade you around and turn you into some boring rich housewife when I can barely stand the thought of that for myself? And when have I  _ ever  _ given you the impression I expected you to be anything but your wild, creative, intelligent, independent, stubborn, utterly beautiful self? I love you because of who you are, not in spite of it.” 

She allowed herself then the indulgence of closing the gap between them, arms around his waist, head buried against his shoulder. “I want to,” she said, voice muffled by the fabric of his soft sleep shirt. “I’m so afraid, so terribly afraid, but I want to. I want to be yours, and I can’t take the chance of losing you again.” 

Gently, kindly, he tilted her face with his index finger until their eyes met, held it there so she couldn’t look away. “You won’t,” he promised, leaning in to brush his lips softly against hers, just for a second. “I know you’re afraid and I know you can worry yourself into a self-fulfilling prophecy sometimes but you’re not going to lose me and you’re not going to lose yourself and I would bet my whole life on that.” 

She regarded him for a long moment, watching his face in the dim light of the moon, taking him in, trying to memorize him and this moment for later. Finally, she spoke, voice shaky but full of conviction: “I love you.”

“I love you, Jo March,” he replied, leaning down once more to give her a proper kiss, standing there in th e doorway until they were both breathless. “Miss March,” he said formally, holding out a hand, “would you like to come upstairs with me?” 

“Mr Laurence,” she replied, equally formal but unable to suppress her smile, “I thought you would never ask.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I told Laurie he should write you. I knew he couldn't be happy without you and you couldn't be happy without him."
> 
> A breakfast, a proposal, and a brief interlude of sisterly love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all so lovely, first off--thank you for all of the lovely kind feedback thus far! it has definitely inspired me to keep this going knowing so many others wanted the same outcome for these sweet babies as I did.
> 
> This chapter is a brief interlude taking place pretty much in immediacy following the end of the first. For pacing purposes I've chosen to separate it as its own chapter, and intend on at least one or two more, "full" chapters as well.

It was still dark outside when Jo awoke with a start, momentarily unable to orient herself in the unfamiliar bed. Reaching out, her hand made contact with an arm, and as her eyes adjusted to the dark so did her brain.  _ Teddy.  _ Smiling, she watched him for several moments, took in his deep, even breathing and the shape of his body under the blankets before reaching out again, brushing a curl off his forehead affectionately. His eyes fluttered open then, smiling at her. “Is it morning?” he asked, reaching to pull her down against him. Shaking her head, Jo attempted to squirm away, but Teddy was persistent, pulling her in for a kiss. “Can’t you stay?” he implored. For a moment, she nearly relented, wanting very much to stay there with him forever, but she shook her head. “I have to get home,” pressing her lips to his forehead. “Can you imagine if everyone woke up and I wasn’t there?”

“Scandal.” Teddy reached up, stroked her cheek. “I love you…”

“I love you.” Already rolling off the bed, scrambling for her nightshirt and socks in the still-dark room. “Come for breakfast later, everyone will be happy to see you.” 

“I will. Tell Hannah to make her johnnycakes, I’ve wanted them for so long…” 

“She’ll be happy to hear it. See you soon, Teddy.” But judging from his soft breathing, he’d already fallen back to sleep, lost no doubt in some beautiful dream.

The house was blessedly still dark as Jo approached, sneaking up the stairs as quietly as possible and flinging herself into her bed, as light and dreamy as a young girl. For the first time, she could understand the way Meg must’ve felt falling in love with John, airy and warm and carefree. How silly it had been to run from this feeling, to fear it, without knowing what it was like! The last thought she had as she drifted off again was that she was certain as anything that this was exactly where she was meant to be. 

When she woke a few hours later, sun was streaming through her windows and she could hear Marmee and Hannah chatting in the kitchen, the smell of coffee wafting up. Springing up, she went bounding down the stairs. “Teddy’s going to come over, can you make johnnycakes? He said he’d been wanting them the whole time he was in Paris. Are Amy and Fred coming?” 

Marmee and Hannah exchanged a look, which Jo ignored. “When did you and Laurie discuss that?” Marmee asked, tone pleasant, face unreadable. 

“Oh, yesterday when he was over after they got back,” Jo replied, her tone as casual as though she herself was convinced of this particular lie.

“Oh, all right.” Marmee got to her feet. “I’ll set the dining room table, then, since there won’t be enough room in the kitchen for us all.” then, leaning down very casually, speaking low so only Jo could hear: “my darling girl, that is  _ not  _ your shirt.” 

Within the hour, the table was set, everyone was dressed (Teddy’s shirt folded neatly at the end of Jo’s bed, though the embarrassed colour on her cheeks had yet to completely fade), and Amy and Fred had arrived, but Teddy was nowhere to be found. “Laurie’s coming,” Marmee explained as Jo bounced anxiously from the table to the window, finally settling (somewhat sulkily) into her chair, convinced he’d overslept--it would be just like him!--just in time for him to burst through the door, bouquet of flowers in hand, looking rumpled and slightly frantic. “They didn’t have anything I thought you’d like,” he explained to Marmee, kissing her cheek and thrusting the flowers at her, settling in to his chair next to Jo, just as casually as if it were any other day, furthering the confused looks on Amy and Fred’s faces. 

The meal was nearly finished before Teddy cleared his throat, sat up straight and rather formally in his chair, and turned to address Mr March. “Sir,” he began. “I regret that we haven’t had the opportunity to get to know each other better and I hope that we can change that sometime in the near future, however, right now I have a very important question to ask you.”

By now all eyes at the table were locked on him, not least of all Jo’s, watching him in mingled horror and fascination. 

“Yes?” her father replied, clearly amused but trying to conceal it. 

“I was wondering,” Teddy began, reaching to hold Jo’s hand, “if you would allow me the pleasure--no--honor--of marrying your daughter.” 

Amy let out a delighted squeal, wrapping her arms around Fred, and Jo dropped her fork in surprise, looking at Teddy sidelong as she retrieved it. Her father was clearly as surprised as the rest of them, clearing his throat. “I’d be happy to, but I’m not the one you need to be asking,” he replied, looking meaningfully at Jo. 

“Ah, yes, well,” turning in his chair, he addressed her, hand in his pocket retrieving a ring--a practical, simple thing with a band of braided gold and a round, small diamond in the center. “Now that the formalities are out of the way, Jo, I hope you’ll forgive me the public display. Will you--”

“ _ Yes _ !” Even as she spoke, though, she was smacking his arm, cheeks flushed, overwhelmed by the whole display. 

Once the ring was on her finger and her lips had been kissed, the table erupted with cheers, everyone talking over each other about having two weddings to plan, how lovely the ring was (not as lovely, Amy was quick to remind, as her own), and a funny story about how Mr March hadn’t really asked Mrs March at all, just sort of informally broached the subject. “I think I’d have preferred that,” Jo joked, but she was secretly, warmly pleased by the fanfare, so rarely at the center of it. There was, of course, an undeniable sense of something missing in the room, marked off perhaps more obviously by Jo’s inability to keep her eyes off the chair where Beth should’ve been sitting, Joanna in her lap. Sensing it, Teddy put an arm around her, kissed the side of her head. “She’d have been so happy,” Jo said after a moment, and everyone nodded. 

“She’d have wanted to move in to the house with us but been too shy to ask,” Teddy joked, and the mood was light once again.

Once Teddy and Fred had left and the house was quiet again, Amy took it upon herself to corner Jo in her bedroom. “I saw him, you know, when we were in Paris.” 

Jo shot her a wary look, wondering how Amy intended to ruin this for her as she was seemingly so wont to do. “Did you,” she said, voice even. 

Amy looked as though she was going to say something and then changed her mind, nodding her head. “We had a long talk,” she said. “I was almost convinced I would say no to Fred, that I wanted something else…” she fussed over the edge of the quilt, then met Jo’s eyes. “I told Laurie that he should write you. I knew he couldn’t be happy without you and I knew you couldn’t be happy without him.”

Without warning, Jo flung her arms around Amy, burying her face in her shoulder, overcome with a rush of love. “Oh Amy,” she cried, “I do love you, you know.” And then pulling back, searching her face, “and you’re happy? You’re happy with Fred?”

Amy nodded. “I knew I could be, and I am. I think sometimes we convince ourselves it can only happen in one way and miss out on it somewhere else.”

Cupping Amy’s face, Jo stroked her cheek. “You’re right,” she agreed, “and Amy, I would do anything I could to make sure that you have the happiest life you can.”

“You always have,” Amy promised. “You always do. And now it’s time I can do the same for you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there are two marriages, but only one wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, this took me approximately 300 years to write, but I feel as though I have my "mojo" back, so to speak. I'm realistically unsure how much longer this will go on but I do have a few more ideas left in my brain, so at least one or two more. 
> 
> Second, I did so much research today into how marriage worked in the 1880s, wedding ring styles, etc for it to be mostly for naught because while I found out that there were legal proceedings to marriage, I could not find any details on WHAT THEY WERE, so...I made them up. I also found out that many men didn't wear wedding rings, but as a nod to the other time she gave him a ring, she gave him her engagement ring back. 
> 
> Third, I'm finding interesting ways to explore the queerness inherent in both Jo and Laurie, including (especially) a bit in this chapter. 
> 
> Anyway that's it I don't know why I keep justifying myself in the author's notes when you're all so lovely and positive and I adore you all. <3

The intervening weeks were full of a flurry of activity and plans being made for two weddings. Amy, naturally, was in her element, and even Jo had to admit that it was fun to watch her have so much fun perfecting every detail. She and Fred had set a date for late summer, and she was aflutter with colour schemes and flower choices and everything in between. 

Jo and Laurie, meanwhile, had yet to set a date, and seemed content to help Fred and Amy while not handling a single aspect of their own planning, much to Amy’s frustration-- “have you picked a gown yet? What about flowers? How are you two ever going to have a wedding if you won’t pick anything out?” to which Jo and Laurie would laughingly reply that they’d get there when they got there, whenever that may be. 

It was one day, a few weeks before Amy’s wedding, that Teddy broached the subject of elopement. They were sitting in the garden of the Laurence’s house, taking a much-needed break from the frenzy of planning, sewing, and occasional shouting that was taking place at the March house. 

“I don’t know why I can’t seem to get excited about all the frivolousness like Amy can,” Jo remarked. “Not that I’ve ever been particularly frivolous, but I thought all girls liked to plan their weddings. It’s not as though I’m not excited to be  _ married  _ to you, that part makes me happy, it’s just…”

“I think all girls  _ do  _ like to plan their weddings,” came Teddy’s reply, “but for gentlemen like us, that’s not the part that’s important, is it?” reaching to take her hand. 

Jo clasped his hand in hers, pleased to be categorised as a gentleman, and considered this. “It’s not that you’re wrong,” she said thoughtfully, “but it’s not as if we can just get  _ married, _ without some sort of--” waving her hands around to demonstrate, then looking at him. “ _ Can  _ we?”

“Sure.” Teddy shrugged. “The marriage is simply a legal matter, the party has nothing to do with it. Why, we could walk down and have it made official in front of a judge tomorrow if we wanted to.” 

Jo considered this. “Then it’d all be done, we’d be married, and we wouldn’t have to worry about anything else.” 

“Other than putting up with me the rest of your life,” Teddy joked, earning a well-deserved affectionate smack to the head. 

“All right,” Jo said definitively. “Let’s do it.””

And so the next morning, before the rest of the house was awake, Jo dressed quickly but carefully, buttoning the waistcoat she’d swapped with Teddy the night before (“so we’ll have a piece of each other to wear,” she’d explained) and tucking Joanna into her bag before slipping out of the house, touching the top of the doll’s head as she tossed a pebble at Teddy’s window, giggling at the absurdity of it: throwing a rock at her husband’s window! Like they were children! His eyes were twinkling with laughter when he appeared there, waving at her and then disappearing, appearing again a moment later at the door. “Ready?” he asked, offering his arm, which she took ceremoniously. 

“Ready,” she affirmed, leaning in close. “Let’s go.” 

There was a carriage waiting for them, and the short ride was full of quiet, but giddy excitement--and a little sadness, too. Jo couldn’t help imagining Beth sitting opposite them, bouncing around nervously as though they were doing something naughty and she was nervous to get caught, and it made her stomach ache a little. 

Shortly they pulled up in front of the courthouse and, holding tightly to each other’s hands, they got out of the carriage and tried to walk like normal people inside, although they couldn’t resist breaking into an excited run before too long. Once inside, laughing and out of breath, they approached a rather unfriendly looking man, announcing: “we’d like to get married, please.” 

From there, there was a bit of paperwork to fill out and then they were directed as to where to go to sit and wait for the judge to come and call them back--which fortunately wasn’t long, given how much they were fidgeting and bouncing around like nervous, excited kids. 

It was strange, Jo reflected, that this was the first time she’d ever been in a courtroom. It was a less solemn place than she thought it would be, in spite of all the dark wood and the judge in his dark robes, it just reminded her somehow of Teddy’s house-- _ their  _ house, she supposed, when this was all over. 

The judge began to speak, telling them of the solemnity of what they were about to do, giving them an opportunity if they did not understand the gravity to reconsider. “Wait!” Teddy cried, and Jo froze, looking at him in combined horror and curiosity. “Hold on, I have--” he rummaged in his pocket, coming up with a key on a pink ribbon, making Jo’s breath catch. Beth’s Pickwick key. “I wanted her here,” he explained sheepishly, “and the piano was a little too big.” 

Jo flung her arms around him then, tears in her eyes, laughing and crying all at once, the judge looking at them both like they were idiots. “I have--” reaching into her bag, retrieving Joanna. “I wanted her here too.” 

He kissed her then, cupped her face in his hands. “I love you more than I know how to say,” he said, and then turned to the judge. “Sir, if we may--can we put these up with you? Our witnesses.” 

By now the judge was likely fairly convinced that the two in front of him were completely insane, but nonetheless he gave his consent and in short order, Joanna and the key were sat on the bench next to the judge, presiding over them. With his assistants in place, he then said a few words about the lifelong commitment of marriage and asked if they’d like to do the same.

Nervously, Teddy pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket, much to Jo’s surprise, and began to read. 

“Jo, from the moment I first met you I loved you terribly. I loved everything about you then and I love everything you’ve turned out to be. You’re wild and ferocious and independent. You’re going to do great things in the world and it’s my honor to be by your side while you do it. You’re my best friend, the love of my life, and the light of my world and you always will be.”

Jo was surprised to find herself welling up with tears, and she swallowed hard before speaking. “Teddy, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with love, and with the idea of marrying someone, but I’ve always known that I wanted you by my side. Sometimes you infuriate me, sometimes I want to throw you out the window, and I know sometimes you feel the same, but I wouldn’t want to spend my life with anyone else. I love you now and forever.” 

He leaned in to kiss her then, hand cupping her face tenderly, stroking her cheek. “I didn’t have time to get you a ring,” he confessed when they broke apart, looking a bit sheepish.

“Do you think I care about that?” she laughed, reaching to tousle his hair, then, looking at the judge: “is that it now? Are we married?”

He gave them a curious look and then, to their surprised delight, a smile. “That’s it,” he declared, “you’re married.” 

There was the signing of the ledger and then it was official--just like that, they were married. 

They were both positively glowing by the time they arrived back home, heading straight for the March house first, bursting through the door, met by Marmee’s surprised face. “We got married,” Jo declared giddily without giving her the opportunity to ask where they’d been, sending Amy flying out of the kitchen. “You did  _ what?” _

“We got married! We--” the genuine bewilderment on Amy’s face made Jo burst out laughing, reaching to hug her. “We just went into town to do it. We, I, you were having so much fun planning your wedding and and I was  _ dreading  _ mine and Teddy said, well, you don’t need a ceremony to get married so now we’re married!” 

There was much screaming and hugging and Teddy looking like he was reconsidering his decision to marry into the family (fleetingly, of course), and Amy was already rambling on about a nice party to celebrate, which Jo put a stop to. “Let’s focus on yours and see if we’re all partied out by the time it’s over, yeah?” 

Hugging her tight, Amy conceded, skipping off merrily to the kitchen, leaving them alone with Marmee, who hugged each of them tightly. “That’s the perfect way for you two,” she said. “Have you told your grandfather yet?” 

Teddy shook his head and she shooed them. “Go, go,” she said. “Tell him to come by for supper, too, will you?” 

Promising they would, they headed out, back over to the Laurences’ as fast as they could, finding the old man sitting alone at the dining room table. “Where were you off adventuring to this morning?” he asked pleasantly. Teddy and Jo exchanged glances, suddenly nervous for no particular reason. 

“We got married,” Teddy said carefully. “In town. We eloped.”

His face unreadable, the old man rose from the table wordlessly. “Wait here,” he said from the doorway, leaving the two nervously standing in the dining room, returning several agonising minutes later, dropping something into the palm of Teddy’s hand--a heavy gold band engraved with elaborate leaf patterns. “Your mother’s,” he explained. Teddy stared at it for several long moments, blinking back tears, and Jo rested a reassuring hand on his back. He turned to her, preparing to slip it on her finger, but she stopped him, slipping the engagement ring off and tucking it into his pocket. “We’ll put it on a chain, then you’ll have one too.” 

He hugged her tight, kissing the top of her head and then pulling back to slip the ring on her finger. 

Clearing his throat, his grandfather spoke again, asking: “have you decided where you’ll live?” 

At that, Jo and Teddy exchanged glances, because in truth they hadn’t, although they’d jokingly talked about just moving between the two houses, back and forth forever. “We hadn’t put much thought into it,” Jo said finally, “I think we were waiting for all the wedding madness to be over--it was sudden--” glancing over at Teddy for backup, but he just stood there wordlessly. 

“What about the cottage by the sea?” the old man asked, “have you put any thought into that? Where you spent summers when you were young,” he reminded Teddy, as if he’d forgotten. “It’s just small but of course you’d inherit this house…” 

They exchanged glances, clearly thinking, and he added, “You can have as much time to think about it as you’d like, and of course you’re welcome to stay here until you do.” He had a wistful look in his eyes, and it was clear to Jo (who so dearly loved the cottage) that he was sad at the prospect of seeing them go. 

“We’ll stay here awhile,” she said definitively. “We’re not in any rush, right Teddy?”

“Right,” he agreed, nodding. “We’ll get Jo’s things here tomorrow or this afternoon, there’s not much to move, is there?” 

For a brief moment, Jo’s heart ached at the thought of Marmee in the house by herself, but then told herself that her father was there and she’d be right there over the hill anyway, and she nodded. “I can start packing things up tonight--Marmee wanted to know if you’d come for dinner?” 

He smiled, watching them with a soft expression she’d really only seen him use for Beth. “I would love to. We can bring a few of your things over tonight, if you’d like.”

They agreed, and then headed back to the March house to confirm that Teddy’s grandfather would be joining them for dinner and then, tentatively, that they would be packing a few things to stay at the Laurence house “to give you some space”. At this, Teddy disappeared up the stairs to pack, leaving Jo and Marmee standing in the living room, Jo looking for all the world like she’d like to run up the stairs too--which she was about to do when Marmee touched her arm softly. “Are you worried I was going to be upset?” she asked kindly, and Jo’s eyes welled up, spilling over down her cheeks. “I know it’s only next door but with Beth gone and Amy getting married you’re going to be all alone here!” she sobbed, flinging herself into Marmee’s arms. 

“Oh my darling girl,” she soothed her. “You’re married, that’s what married people do, it’s time for you to make your own way, and it’s only next door. I’ve got your father and Hannah to keep me company. I know it’s going to be strange, but I’m so proud of you.”

Jo stayed there in her mother’s embrace for several more moments, until the tears subsided and she caught her breath. “You mean it?”

“With all my heart.” 

Wiping her eyes with a small smile, she turned to follow Teddy up the stairs, if still anxious then at least reassured that everything would be all right. 

The next few weeks were a flurry of last minute preparations and Jo adjusting to life in the big house, which turned out to suit her well--being with Teddy every day was a joy, and the house was so big that it felt at times that they were alone there in their married life, but when it got lonely there was always someone to talk to, either there or a few steps away at the March house, and there was space for Jo to have her own writing room, working diligently on her “secret project”. Everything was such a whirlwind that it seemed barely a blink had passed before it was Amy and Fred’s turn for a wedding. The day dawned bright and beautiful with just a hint of autumn crispness to the air, and Amy of course looked beautiful, absolutely glowing in the gown that she and Marmee and Meg and even Jo had worked so hard to make perfect, a crown of baby’s breath in her hair. Beth made her appearance at this wedding, too, in the form of as many of her dolls as they could arrange on a chair, and Daisy carrying a basket of kittens (the grandchildren of beloved Mrs Snowball) instead of flowers. 

It was a beautiful day, but by the time Jo and Teddy were back in their big warm bed at the Laurence house, she was relieved it was over. 

“I can’t believe Amy’s married,” Teddy mused, combing his fingers through Jo’s hair affectionately. “Your family always has the best weddings.” 

“Don’t even start,” Jo warned playfully, leaning up to kiss him. “We aren’t having a wedding.”

“Why not?” Teddy replied, equally playful, “Maybe at ours I could get the old lady to dance with me.”

“Oh my darling boy,” she giggled, “I think hell would freeze over before that day came.” 

“Maybe,” he conceded, “but there’s only one way to find out.”

“Stop!!” rolling over on top of him, she went to take a playful swing at him, but he caught her hands, pulling her down for a kiss, and she knew there would be no more discussion of weddings that night. 


End file.
